Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

The involvement of the orbitofrontal cortex in learning under changing task contingencies.

Jenna Kim1, Michael E Ragozzino

  • 1Laboratory of Integrative Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60607, USA.

Neurobiology of Learning and Memory
|February 22, 2005
PubMed
Summary

Inactivating the orbitofrontal cortex impairs reversal learning in rats, especially with increased task difficulty. This highlights the orbitofrontal cortex's role in flexible decision-making and adapting to new choices.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Molecular impacts of Meier-Gorlin syndrome mutations on human origin licensing.

The Journal of biological chemistry·2025
Same author

Transfer Learning in EEG-based Reinforcement Learning Brain Machine Interfaces via Q-learning Kernel Temporal Differences.

Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Annual International Conference·2025
Same author

A combinatorial and computational Tandem approach towards a universal therapeutics against ACE2-mediated coronavirus infections.

iScience·2025
Same author

SARS-CoV-2: lessons in virus mutation prediction and pandemic preparedness.

Current opinion in immunology·2025
Same author

Prenatal stress and fluoxetine exposure in BTBR and B6 mice differentially affects autism-like behaviors in adult male and female offspring.

Physiology & behavior·2025
Same author

LERCause: Deep learning approaches for causal sentence identification from nuclear safety reports.

PloS one·2024

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Animal Behavior

Background:

  • Attentional-set shifting is crucial for cognitive flexibility.
  • Previous studies often used simpler two-choice tasks to investigate the prefrontal cortex.
  • The role of the orbitofrontal cortex in tasks with varying difficulty remains less understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the impact of orbitofrontal cortex inactivation on attentional-set shifting in a two- or four-choice odor reversal learning task.
  • To determine how task difficulty influences the prefrontal cortex's contribution to learning and cognitive flexibility.

Main Methods:

  • Long-Evans rats were trained on two- and four-choice odor discrimination and reversal learning tasks.
  • Bilateral infusions of muscimol (a GABA-A agonist) were administered into the orbitofrontal cortex.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Performance was assessed based on acquisition, reversal learning, and error types (perseverative, regressive, irrelevant).

    • Main Results:

    • Orbitofrontal cortex inactivation did not affect the acquisition of either the two- or four-choice discrimination tasks.
    • Muscimol infusions impaired performance during both two- and four-choice reversal learning.
    • In two-choice reversal, inactivation increased perseverative errors; in four-choice reversal, it increased perseverative, regressive, and irrelevant errors.

    Conclusions:

    • The orbitofrontal cortex is essential for successful task switching, particularly in inhibiting previously relevant choices.
    • As task demands increase, the orbitofrontal cortex becomes critical for executing new choices and ignoring irrelevant stimuli.
    • These findings underscore the orbitofrontal cortex's role in adaptive behavior and cognitive flexibility under varying conditions.